Catalysts

Experiences and events that brought us here.

• While in college, I got deeply involved with mental health activism, attending protests and rallies for policies that affected young people. The bigger the peaceful protests, the greater the imposed censorship. Localized internet and telecom blackouts were common.

• When I graduated from college as an international student, I had no credit score and struggled to find a bank that would give me a credit card, struggled to find a place to rent, or even get a home WiFi connection.

• In 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mastercard, Visa, and Amex turned off their payment rails in the region, banks were struggling to provide liquidity and ATMs were out of cash, it didn’t matter how much money you had saved up, you couldn’t use it. People turned to cryptocurrency to spend on food, shelter, donations, essential travel. This was a powerful use case for our industry, until the internet went out.

• My home, India, leads the world rankings in government imposed internet and telecom blackouts, cutting off entire states from accessing communication and using their voice.

• Invasions, wars, and conflicts in the Middle East, especially Syria, Afghanistan, Gaza have seen people lose complete access to internet, telecom, and information.

• Over 2 Billion people worldwide still have no internet access, bank account, or carrier service.